The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has revealed that last year’s school placement exercise received as many as 60,000 protocol requests, underscoring the urgent need for reforms to ensure fairness in Ghana’s education system.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, April 1, the Minister expressed concern over the unsustainable volume of requests that put immense pressure on the Ministry to accommodate non-merit-based placements.
“I am aware that last year we got protocol requests as many as 60,000. Anybody in my shoes will struggle to honour those requests,” he stated.
The disclosure comes amid wider reforms to the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS), which now include a mandatory one-week period after the release of BECE results for students to confirm their school choices, as well as a dedicated percentage of placements reserved for alumni.
Minister Iddrisu emphasized that the new system will be strictly supervised to prevent abuse of placements and to curb the influence of protocol lists in the allocation process.
“Let me also say there will be a supervising committee of the technical working committee that will supervise the work of the CSP,” he added.
The Ministry hopes the measures will ensure merit-based placements while reducing pressure from protocol requests, which have long been a source of controversy in Ghana’s secondary school placement system.
